No doubt, in the political arena, campaign and bargaining in Afghanistan, ethnic divisions continue to be at play. In fact, ethnicity is the predominant variable influencing politics, development of political parties, institution-building and peace-building. There are four major ethnic identities and groups that influence politics in Afghanistan and struggle for power by competing against one another. All of them have been and are committed to territorial integrity of a unified Afghanistan- which they believe is a home to all ethnic groups and must be protected as a single territory.

Many of these ethnic groups believe that there is a need for a state-building. State-building process has been very tempestuous and continues to remain so as it is influenced by different identity interests. But ethnic groups of the country have remained at loggerheads on how to form a strong modern state that is able to have the monopoly of using legitimate force and establish its writ across a unified Afghanistan.

Some dominant groups have been pursuing a policy of exclusion and others have continued to call for a policy of inclusion. Afghanistan is emerging from more than three decades of war and conflict. These conflicts have had roots in attempts for implementing exclusion policy that has been resisted vigorously by those who want a fair share in power and allocation of resources in the country.

Legitimacy of political institutions in multi-ethnic societies hinges on inclusiveness and representation. A pattern of zero-sum game to be continued to be played in a country like Afghanistan is not in the interest and favor of democratization. Now that the reconciliation process is underway it is feared that an imbalanced policy for future political processes may be adopted by some government circles.

Afghanistan is a post-conflict country; the civil conflict through which the country has been was caused by despotic and monopolistic approaches to power arrangements. A failure to emphasize on and ensure inclusiveness as a major component of permanent stabilization strategy will lead to a decline into a new round of chaos.

So there is a choice to be made between perpetuating political instability by attempting at ethnic domination and politically stabilize the country by recognizing the differences and designing institutions in such a fashion to accommodate those differences to pave the way for a permanent peaceful coexistence.